Back to 80: My Literary Life

Fang Minghua looked at Lu Yao and saw that his cheeks were yellow and swollen, as if he was seriously ill.

Lu Yao looked at Fang Minghua, his eyes were sunken, his beard was unkempt, and his hair was unkempt.

The two of them were stunned for a moment, and then they both started laughing. They were both guilty of writing novels.

"Brother Lu, come, come, sit down." Fang Minghua greeted warmly and put a cup of herbal tea for him.

I asked by the way: "Brother Lu, what's wrong with you?"

"It's something, I just want to..." Lu Yao's tone suddenly turned serious.

"You can tell me anything, as long as I can do it."

"That's it. I have no cigarettes anymore and my money is a little tight, so I want to borrow your money to buy some cigarettes." Lu Yao said the purpose of his visit.

"No problem, how much do you want? I just reimbursed my travel expenses today." Fang Minghua replied with a smile.

"I want to buy three peonies. Each one costs 4.7 yuan and it costs 15 yuan and 10 cents. Just lend me 15 yuan." Lu Yao said.

"You bought so much?!" Fang Minghua was surprised.

“Buy more at a time, I’m too lazy to go out, and the whole thing is cheap.”

Fang Minghua didn't say anything, so he gave Lu Yao 15 yuan from his wallet. Lu Yao left in a hurry and came back soon with a cigarette in his mouth.

"Haha, I'm lucky today. Three peonies were not sold in the store, so I took them all. The rations for this period of time are enough. The money I borrowed from you will be paid back to you when I pay my wages."

"There's no rush to pay back the money. It's just that Brother Lu, you are too addicted to smoking and smoke less." Fang Minghua took the opportunity to persuade.

"If you don't smoke, of course you don't understand the joy of smoking." Lu Yao said with a smile, "And I can't write anything if I don't smoke."

"Let me tell you, when I was in Ganquan, I smoked Phoenix. It was expensive and hard to buy." It seemed that Lu Yao was in a good mood and told an interesting story in Ganquan.

It turned out that while he was writing, he had finished smoking the "Phoenix" cigarettes he brought from Xijing, and his craving for cigarettes started to make him swarm like ants on a hot pot.

He asked a correspondent from the Propaganda Department to buy it for him, but he searched everywhere in the county for this brand of cigarettes. He tried many places but couldn't find any. He even tried his best to go to the warehouse of the County Agricultural and Auxiliary Company, but still couldn't find it.

Finally, the correspondent mustered up the courage to "ask for help" from the then county party committee member Shuji, and finally found the only two "Phoenix" cigarettes in the county at that time and brought them to him.

"You don't know, when I saw the cigarettes, I felt like a person who had been hungry for three days and saw the steamed buns. I thanked them repeatedly and expressed my opinion on the spot! With these two "life-saving cigarettes", this manuscript will definitely be completed!"

"Now the manuscript is finished." Fang Minghua said with a smile.

"It's basically settled." Lu Yao said with emotion: "Phoenix cigarettes are too expensive and difficult to buy, so I switched back to Peony."

Peony is not cheap either. More importantly, smoking is harmful to the body.

But seeing Lu Yao smoking happily, Fang Minghua couldn't say more.

"By the way, I was just in a hurry to find a cigarette and forgot another thing." Lu Yao said, taking out a thick stack of documents from the official document and handing it to Fang Minghua.

"My novel has been completed and is about to be sent to Wang Ling, editor-in-chief of Yanjing's "Youth Literature". It was she who commissioned the manuscript. I want you to help me take a look. I wonder if it will affect your writing?"

"It doesn't matter. I won't be able to finish writing in half a minute anyway, so I don't care about this little time." Fang Minghua said enthusiastically, "I'll take a sneak peek."

After receiving Lu Yao's manuscript, it was filled with dense handwriting, but when Fang Minghua saw the title, he was stunned.

"The Music of Life"

Why not "Life"?

But when he saw the sentence at the beginning of the second paragraph, "At this time, Gao Jialin, the only son of Gao Yude, a private teacher in Gaojia Village, was shirtless," Fang Minghua was sure that this was "Life".

It seems that it used to be this name.

"Xiao Fang, you watch first. I'm going to go back and take a nap. My brain is exhausted. I'll come back in the afternoon. If you have any opinions, feel free to ask." Lu Yao said.

"Okay, Brother Lu, you have to have a good rest. Your body is the capital of revolution." Fang Minghua warned.

"It doesn't matter, look at you, haven't you also become darker and thinner?" Lu Yao didn't care.

We are different. You really need to pay attention to your health.

Fang Minghua wanted to persuade him further, but Lu Yao had already walked out of the yard.

Fang Minghua shook his head and returned to his room.

After Lu Yao left, Fang Minghua made himself some tea and sat at the desk in front of the window to read carefully.

The manuscript is very thick, with more than a hundred pages. The font is not illegible, and there are not many traces of correction. It looks like it is no longer a first draft.

Fang Minghua was quickly immersed in the ocean of words, and time passed quietly. When he finished reading it and looked up, he realized that the sun had already turned west.

Looking at the flowers and plants in the yard, Fang Minghua picked up the cold tea and drank it slowly while thinking about something in his mind.

Before traveling through time, Fang Minghua had seen movies and TV series adapted from the novel, and had also read the original novel. However, he always felt that there was a difference between this draft and the final published version.

It seems that the love line is too entangled?

Well, that's it.

The love between the protagonists Gao Jialin and Liu Qiaozhen is what readers are most interested in talking about, but as an author, you cannot dwell too much on it.

After all, this is a realistic work and not a romance novel.

Thinking of this, Fang Minghua carefully read the content of the following chapters. Also, Gao Jialin wrote very well about rural life. In comparison, he wrote less well after entering the city. Is it because Lu Yao was very familiar with it? Because of rural life?

It's possible.

In this era when there is no Internet and it is very inconvenient to access information, a writer's personal life experience is often the main source of writing.

In Qin Province, people like Lu Yao, Chen Zhongshi and others live in rural areas all year round, so what he writes is basically based on rural life.

Jia Pingwa is a different kind.

In his early years, he wrote "The First Record of Shangzhou" and "The Second Record of Shangzhou" about the customs and customs of his hometown. Later he wrote the novel "Abandoned Capital", which describes the various aspects of life in the ancient city of Xijing, which shows that he has adapted to city life. strong ability.

Although it is a bit controversial, it is also well written.

Fang Minghua was just thinking when he saw Lu Yao walking over in a hurry.

"Hey, Xiao Fang, I slept until now and thought you were off work, but I didn't expect you really didn't leave."

"I was so fascinated by the novel you wrote that I lost track of time." Fang Minghua replied.

"Haha. Have you finished reading? How do you feel?" Lu Yao asked again.

Fang Minghua pondered for a moment, trying to organize his words. Suddenly he heard his stomach growling, so he said, "Brother Lu, have you eaten?"

"Not yet. Mingming (Lu Yao's daughter) was taken to the street by her mother to play. I'll go back and heat up the leftovers."

"I haven't eaten either. Let's go to a restaurant! I'll treat you to mutton dip." Fang Minghua said with a smile.

"This is so bad. You lent me money to buy cigarettes and also treated me to dinner." Lu Yao looked embarrassed.

"Hey, this is just a small thing. If you feel bad about it, please do it next time! Go, go."

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